While it hasn't always been popular among readers, I don't think DC's New 52 reboot is all bad. Its Aquaman and Batman books are absolutely top-notch, and even some of its stranger decisions have a refreshing air of experimentation to them. That being said, if I had to choose any element of the New 52 that rankled me personally, it would be Lobo, a character so throughly fumbled that DC ended up having to reboot him twice. The character bears little resemblance to the tongue-in-cheek parody we met in Lobo: The Last Czarnian, and is now the kind of super-serious, death-dealing assassin his predecessor once mocked mercilessly.

So imagine my surprise, almost a year after the character's re-relaunch, when I found out that DC intends to give this Lobo a brand-new ongoing series. Debuting in October under the creative team of Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun) and Reilly Brown (Cable & Deadpool), DC's New 52 Lobo will take the character on hyper-violent adventures across the stars and explain how he became a cold-blooded killer. Spoiler alert: These origins involve the tragic loss of his family. Gag.

"Violence is just one aspect of the character," Bunn told Comic Book Resources. "It's there, and it's something we are going to embrace in this series, but we'll also be exploring facets of Lobo that haven't really been brought into the spotlight. He had a life, a job, a family, a lover long before he became the cruel, devious man-hunter we'll see in this series. We're going to look at what shaped him into the coldblooded killer he is today."

Oh wait, it gets better. Apparently one of Lobo's motivating factors is that he's the absolute best at what he does, something we haven't seen in dozens of other anti-hero characters in the past. "Lobo doesn't think he's a 'good' guy, but he's pretty sure he's the 'best' guy for any given job," Bunn continued. "He's certainly an anti-hero, but something we're introducing in this series is Lobo's code. He follows a rather extensive code of honor."

Here's the problem: Most of these descriptions of the New 52 Lobo reboot seem to miss the point of what made the character so appealing. Lobo wasn't great because of his over-the-top violence; he was entertaining because that over-the-top violence exaggerated and mocked the glut of such characters popular at that time. From all appearances however, this Lobo is being played straight, ruthlessly dispatching enemies with little in the way of self-awareness. Perhaps I'm wrong, and this series will openly parody a different breed of anti-hero, but the old Lobo never needed a tragic backstory for audiences to engage with him.

Apparently Bunn had originally pitched a very different Lobo book: a series where Lobo teams up with the identity-stealing "Faux-bo" to have buddy cop adventures across the galaxy. DC shot down the concept, but I can't help but feel that brand of self-aware humor is sorely lacking in the New 52's current line-up. Here's hoping I'll be mistaken when Lobo launches on October 1st.

It sounds like someone at DC really wants to a serious Lobo story... or at least that's the only explanation as to why they keep bringing this up...

So, get it out of their system in a one shot, then have the original Lobo brutally murder that version (claim it was a clone with implanted memories or something) and resume his status as the DC version of Deadpool.

You know, my only experience with Lobo was the Superman 90s animated series. I was under the impression that he was supposed to be a parody character. You know, he was supposed to be FUN! A merciless mocking of 90s anti-heroes. He takes the piss on self righteous douche bags who act like they're doing the right thing by just being a good for nothing sleezeball who runs around blowing shit up for no reason other than it amuses him. And he's hilarious!

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Why won't DC just hire Coelasquid to do the Lobo comics. I'm sure she could do Lobo justice - at least on the humor front.

Heck yeah that will always be who Lobo is in my mind. This new version is like they took every cliche in the book and then played them straight rather than as a satire of it.

Seriously I rarely buy comics but if DC actually did one with the old lobo coming back and brutally killing the new one I would buy that ina heart beat! This is why comics are stuck in a rut, because when they try to do something "new" they couldn't miss the point harder if the point was in another plane of existence.

I get the fun of new interpretations of characters, but their comes a point where it's not a new interpretation, it's just a straight up new character with someone elses name who magically made the other person disappear when he came into existence.

Urgh, I've been loving the Aquaman and Batman books and some of the other series, but every time Lobo has shown up in the new 52 it feels like a throwback to the Liefield 90's era of ridiculous muscle bound characters covered in pouches.

The Deathstroke series was killed off my being thoroughly Lobo'd.

With a couple of exceptions I go for DC and Image stuff generally, but if I want a merc with an attitude, there's already Deadpool to go to.

Sales alone are likely to let this just die quietly and let Lobo be returned to the shelf of things about the 90s we want to forget.

I can get why they'd change Lobo, and I'm fine with him being a pretty boy with a tragic backstory.Here's the thing though, don't play it straight.

He's a parody, so I get why he'd have to change with the times to parody new trends. I think changing him to reflect the change would make more sense than trying to preserve his image that developed as a parody.But what is the point of this??

Don't you see lobo was originally a parody of the 90s dark age comic book character. So it makes sense the new lobo will parody the modern Jacob/Edward type Marty Stu angst "hero". I look forward to them rebotting him every other issue to poke at spiderman/batman.

Willstown:Urgh, I've been loving the Aquaman and Batman books and some of the other series, but every time Lobo has shown up in the new 52 it feels like a throwback to the Liefield 90's era of ridiculous muscle bound characters covered in pouches.

The Deathstroke series was killed off my being thoroughly Lobo'd.

With a couple of exceptions I go for DC and Image stuff generally, but if I want a merc with an attitude, there's already Deadpool to go to.

Sales alone are likely to let this just die quietly and let Lobo be returned to the shelf of things about the 90s we want to forget.

Corrections

1: You want to forget. To me 1990's Lobo was awesome. Also Lobo was made in the 1980's just to further clarify.

2: Lobo is a Bounty Hunter. Not a Mercenary like Deadpool.

3: I hope it just isn't me, but 1990's Deadpool written by Joe Kelly is way better than whatever Daniel Way did to ruin Deadpool. Also Deadpool was made in the 1990's so I guess you might want to forget Deadpool too.

WoW... I mean Wow.... DC... you guys okay man? I mean you seem to have reached the point where your characters no longer have any real point other than to embody and chase any new hip young trend that you you think will bring new readers in... which is funny since it seems to do the opposite.

No I'm serious...find who ever is in charge and throw him/her out a window.

I mean...come on...anyone who liked Lobo originally certainly is not gonna like this version and anyone who was unware of Lobo well the guy doesn't exactly stand out from the list of other pretty boys does he?